When Donghyuck first found out about the whole soulmate thingy, his six year old self was beyond joyful. Thoughts of getting on journeys, traveling just to find your soulmate, or if you're lucky, your other half has been there with you all the time and you won't have to go through the process of finding them excites him the most. Love and fate is really a wonderful thing, huh? 

 

But in a country where half of the population shares the same surname, it's kinda hard, really. 

 

Well, he hadn't given it much thought anyways. He's just patiently waiting for the day for something to appear on his wrist. Some of his friends had gotten it early, like his Youngho hyung, even Jisung who's younger than him. He's not exactly rushing to know whom he's destined to, there's still a lot of time and he knows, it'll appear soon, he just has to wait. 

 

~

 

Donghyuck woke up feeling exhausted and sweaty because of the dream he just had. He dreamt of a stranger, a guy he presumes, but he's awfully familiar for some reason. He just can't quite put a finger on it but he knows he's familiar. 

 

Anyways, its not a big deal so he lies down again, knowing that he still have a few minutes to spare and sleep is important more than anything else. But as soon as he closes his eyes, that's when his alarm started ringing very loudly.

 

So in a very annoyed manner, he got up and grabbed his things to get ready for the day. He wants to take the bathroom first before his roommate because who knows how long his roommate takes to get ready. Donghyuck thinks he admires himself in their bathroom mirror every morning because hello, why not start the day with a good pep talk to yourself? 

 

Pft.

 

The tanned boy likes to start his day in a peaceful manner, humming Red Velvet's songs under his breath while showering and doing his daily skincare routine. It's this time of the day where silence is ultimately pleasing to him, the sun's rays filtering through the small bathroom window and giving off a warm vibe and its just him and his reflection on the huge mirror. 

 

But when he was brushing his teeth, he notices something black on his wrist. He took a closer look and that's when he shrieks. 

 

"." Is what he ends up saying.

 

On his wrist, right beside his pulse, is Lee, written on black ink. 

 

He had to blink several times just to make sure it's there, that he's not dreaming because if he is, then he'd be really disappointed. He even tried to rub it, to erase it, just to see if its his roomate trying to play a prank on him but, its still there. 

 

Donghyuck may or may not have shed a tear or two before running to his roommate's room. He has to share the wonderful news, and he doesn't care if he's still sleeping. He didn't even knock, just straight up went to shake the poor boy until he wakes up.

 

"Jeno! Wake up, I have something to tell you!" Donghyuck jumps on his bed, almost stepping on Jeno's thigh. "The mark! I have my mark!"

 

"Congratulations," Jeno raises his hand up to give him a high five, "but I still don't have mine so can we just please sleep." He requests, voice still laced with sleepiness.

 

"Aren't you happy for me?! Now here I am thinking you were my bestfriend and all," Donghyuck starts standing up slowly. "Whatever, cook your own breakfast, Lee Jeno."

 

As soon as he says his full name, he stops. Like, dramatically stops and slowly turned around to look back at his roommate who is now sitting up from the mention of breakfast.

 

"Alright, alright, I'm up Hyuck." Jeno smiles, his famous eye smile coming into view. "Aren't you waking up a little too early for today whose class starts at 11?"

 

Donghyuck shakes his ahead, a little taken aback from his own, sudden thought but he decides to shake it off and think about it later. "No, its a Tuesday. My class starts at 8."

 

"It's a Tuesday?!"

 

"Uh, yeah. I literally just said it's a Tuesday."

 

Jeno dramatically sighs, "my class starts at 8 too, Mr. Moon,"

 

Donghyuck laughs, "good luck at staying awake, sleepyhead." He ushers Jeno out of the room after, "now go and shower, you stink." 

 

Lee, huh? Donghyuck thinks to himself. 

 

By the time he's finished cooking and now that the two of them are on their way to university for their 8 am classes, Donghyuck couldn't stop thinking about his soulmate.

 

He's determined to meet him soon. 

 

But there are approximately 6 million of Koreans with the surname Lee, how the hell can he find his damn soulmate? He groans, this is harder than he thought. 

 

~

 

"What you're saying is," Renjun starts, taking a sip from his iced coffee. "Is that your mark appeared this morning and you think its Jeno?" His Chinese friend holds up his wrist to study his mark closely.

 

Donghyuck splutters, "I didn't say it was Jeno, it's just that-" 

 

"But you do think it's him?" Jaemin looks up from his book, smirking a little just to annoy him. "Ohhh maybe he really is?" 

 

He gives him a dirty look, "shut up Jaemin and go back to your book." 

 

Jaemin stucks his tongue out and successfully avoids the binder Donghyuck's thrown his way. 

 

"You do realize that even though I'm wearing earphones I can still hear you guys," Jeno gives his group of friends a funny look, the one that makes Jaemin crack up in laughter uncontrollably, just like right now. 

 

Jeno closes his laptop and faces Donghyuck, his face on his hands as he talks, "you know I don't mind being your soulmate, you're aware of that, right? But as far as I remember, based from Youngho hyung's story, his soulmate and him got their marks on the same day," he makes the action of raising up his wrist, "and I don't have mine. Nothing appeared today when I woke up." 

 

Donghyuck sighs in distraught, he shouldn't be really stressing about over this. He's too young and too beautiful to be stressed. 

 

"Hey," Jaemin pokes his pen at his arm, "when your mark appears, you start having these dreams to help you know them, Hyuck. I heard that from my parents. Even Jisung has those dreams and he kind of keeps them in track."

 

"Is that why I dreamt of a guy this morning? I couldn't see his face though, what a shame." 

 

Renjun rubs his back, an act he always does when he can feel the younger is somewhat stressed. Thank God for Renjun, Donghyuck thinks, if its just Jaemin and Jeno he'd be stressed ten times more than he is now. 

 

"You didn't know?"

 

Donghyuck smiled sheepishly, a bit embarrased from his lack of knowledge about this whole soulmate thing. "Oh yeah, it's not Jeno. The guy I dreamt of looks really cool though, like he's literally oozing charisma, swear. And Jeno's like, the most uncool person in Korea," he shrugs. 

 

Jeno gives him a hurt expression, "hey, remember, you kissed 'the most uncool person in Korea' back in middle school so," he shrugs back at him. 

 

Donghyuck rolls his eyes, "you would never really live that down, will you?" 

 

"I won't. And expect that I'd bring it up in the future if I have to."

 

Soon, all four of them are engrossed in their own worlds, too busy to even talk about each other's lives. Even Donghyuck forgot about his mark, he needed to pass Mr. Jung's class first, his soulmate, second.

 

The rest of the day passed quickly. Renjun, Donghyuck and Jaemin are in the library studying today's lectures since they don't have anything better to do, while Jeno goes to the airport to welcome his cousin whom he never heard of. 

 

Donghyuck is nervous, to say the least. He's heard of some situations where the other half of the person doesn't love them back, they say it's rare, something about genetics or what, but what if it's him? He doesn't want to admit it but he's such a huge hopeless romantic, deep down his funny and savage persona there's this Lee Donghyuck who wants to be happy in love with his soulmate. And its not like he has a lot of experience with romance and relationships, he's dated only two guys in his life; Jeno, that was in middle school, okay. They thought it was a good idea. And the second one, a Chinese exchange student, Yukhei. That didn't work out well either, but at least they're good friends.

 

"I can feel a headache coming up," Jaemin mutters. "The numbers are starting to look like letters to me, I can't tell the difference between 8 and S."

 

"You need a break, you've been studying for an eternity."

 

Jaemin laughs silently, they're still in a library after all, "hey, Youngho hyung is coming here."

 

As soon as Donghyuck turns around, his view was blocked by a huge body, no other than his Youngho hyung. /Why is he so tall?/ He thought bitterly to himself, /he's at least one head taller than me.?/

 

"Hey," Youngho greets, taking the seat beside Donghyuck. "A little birdie told me you got your mark, Hyuck." 

 

"I assume it's Jaemin."

 

The guy held his hands up in surrender, "hey, I was just thinking maybe hyung can help you in your dilemmma since you look really stressed about it. I'm just being a good friend," He shrugs and smiled innocently.

 

"Anyways," Youngho starts, "when I got mine I had these dreams every day and they only stopped when I got to meet my soulmate. Its really helpful, actually, so you better keep it in track, Hyuckie. Aww, our little Hyuckie has grown up!" Youngho ruffles his hair and soon Renjun is laughing at him. 

 

Donghyuck looked closely at his older friend's wrist, looking for the mark, but who has a surname 'CL'? 

 

"Huh? Your soulmate's last name is 'CL'?" 

 

Youngho shakes his head, "no, your mark changes to the initials of your soulmate once you realized you two are destined or like you've created some sort of bond, I think."

 

The three of them looked at each other and nodded, why wasn't he oriented about all of these? He feels so stupid.

 

Donghyuck's phone started ringing loudly insude the library. "Oh , I forgot to put it on silent," he mutters. He excused himself from his friends and quickly went out of the library before the head librarian lectures him of the rules and regulations. 

 

"Yeah?"

 

"I just called to remind you about my cousin coming from the airport today," Jeno speaks through the phone. "I wanted to remind you because we are on our way back to the apartment."

~

Two large suitcases welcomed him as soon as he opened the door to their apartment. 

 

He looked around the area, looking for his roommate and his cousin. He heard laughter coming from their room and went there, but not before grabbing a snack from the fridge.

 

Donghyuck knocks first, before entering the room. 

 

"You're here, Hyuck!" Jeno exclaims. 

 

"Yeah, I've noticed."

 

His roommate rolls his eyes at him, "my cousin's in the washroom, he's excited to meet you," Jeno raises his eyebrows teasingly. Donghyuck made a face at him and sat down beside him on the bed.

 

"Jeno," he whines. "I'm so tired." He then tackles him into a hug until both of them are lying on the bed. 

 

"Hey Jeno," someone spoke. "Oh, sorry."

 

Jeno sat up, "hey, get off me. I have to introduce you to my cousin," he pushes him away but Donghyuck is a stubborn person, so he didn't let go of him and instead, hugged him tighter and whines. "No, I'm tired."

 

He hears his cousin chuckling, "its fine, you can introduce us next time."

 

"Whatever," he detaches himself away from his roommate. "Hi, I'm Donghyuck!" He says, standing up from the bed and faces Jeno's cousin who's back is now facing him. "I'm Jeno's roommate, as you can see."

 

His cousin turns around and holy , Donghyuck thinks, why does this scene look so familiar? And Jeno didn't tell me his cousin is cute!

 

"Hi," he reaches out his hand. "I'm Mark."

 

He swears his heart stopped beating for a millisecond there. Not only is this guy cute but holy , he has a nice voice as well! 

 

"Nice to meet you, and thank you for letting me stay here. I've heard a lot of nice things about you," Mark smiles. 

 

Wow. This guy is on another level of beautiful, Donghyuck thinks. 

 

Donghyuck can't help but smile as well, "its okay, at least there's someone who can help me taking care of Jeno because your cousin is a child." He ignores Jeno's disagreements in the background and grins at the newcomer. 

 

"Uh, I can't cook, first of all," Mark scratches the back of his neck. "But I can help you with cleaning the apartment?" 

 

"Oh, I was just joking, make yourself comfortable, besides this will be your home here anyway. We got to introduce you to our friends soon, right, Jeno?"

 

 

Jeno nods and gives them a thumbs up. 

 

 

"Well, I have to go to my room now, call me if you guys need anything." He says, holding the doorknob. "It's nice meeting you, Mark!"

 

 

Once he entered his room, his hand went straight to his chest, right above the place where his heart is. Why is his heart beating so fast? And the scene earlier, it's strangely..familiar? But he just literally met the guy! Dropping his bag on the bed, Donghyuck noticed a box of his favorite treats. Smiling to himself, he yelled out a 'thanks' to Jeno and Mark. 

 

 

Usually, Donghyuck likes to take a nap once he arrives from university, given that he's exhausted from all the information he's absorbed today. It's just that, the whole soulmates things is bothering him. He stared at the black ink on his wrist, the Lee placed there and the longer he looks, the more he gets stressed. 

 

 

He decided to shrug off the topic for later and actually do some work. Pulling out his notes from today's lectures, he decided to rewrite them again because messy notes keeps on messing with his brain. It may not be obvious but Donghyuck is a pretty, smart student and he likes things to be organized in his own way.

 

 

He's so deep in thought and focused he didn't realize an hour has passed and there's Jeno sitting beside him, making him scream. 

 

 

"God, Jeno, how long have you been there?"

 

 

His roommate chuckles, "it doesn't matter, by the way, Mark ordered dinner, you wanna eat?"

 

 

Donghyuck stood up, grabbing Jeno's arm in the process. "I never say no to free food you know- hey is your cousin that rich? He's not even here for a full day, literally he just arrived three hours ago and he has given me free food twice already."

 

 

"We split up the bill when we bought your favorite treats!" Jeno argued.

 

 

The smell of fried chicken filled the air and Donghyuck's stomach grumbles, making Mark look up at him, smiling a little from the sight of a blushing Donghyuck. Ever since he saw his cousin's roommate, he couldn't deny the fact that he is cute. Like, boyfriend cute, not brother cute type of way. He's gonna smack Jeno's head soon for not telling him that he has a cute roommate, out of all the important details he has to miss, he forgot to tell the most important one. 

 

 

The dinner went by in a peaceful manner, the three talking about each other's lives. Mark and Jeno had a lot of catching up to do since apparently, its been five years since Mark last went to Korea. Of course they never let Donghyuck feel out of place, including him in their conversation every now and then. He founds out Mark is a year older than them and will be attending the same university as them and that he laughs a lot. Every time Donghyuck says something funny, or what Mark thinks is funny, his hand flies up to hit Jeno square on his arm. Kinda reminds him of a seal, but a cute seal at that. 

 

 

Mark's laugh sounds melodious to his ears, he's decided that he doesn't mind to make a fool of himself if in exchange, he gets to hear that wonderful laugh. He's even close to saying that Mark's smile can beat Jaemin's smile, and that's telling something because Jaemin brags, and he has the right, for having the best smile.

 

 

Donghyuck sighs, he hadn't been able to talk to Mark personally yet, here he is, infatuation for the older slowly growing. 

 

 

He shook his head and decided to focus at the task at hand. And that is washing the dishes. It's his turn for the day and Jeno's back in his room, helping his cousin fix his things. 

 

 

Donghyuck sighs again, remembering that Mark is probably straight and most probably, has a girlfriend back in Canada. 

 

 

Finishing his task, he dries his hand with a kitchen towel and after making sure that the sink is clean and clear, he's about to go back to his room before he yelps in shock, because Mark is standing near the fridge and almost gave Donghyuck a heart attack. 

 

 

Okay, he's kidding in most cases but Donghyuck was so shocked he thinks he have to cut down with his daily caffeine intake. 

 

 

"I'm sorry, did I shock you?" He laughs nervously, his hand scratching the back of his neck. 

 

 

Donghyuck sighs, "how long have you been standing there? Oh, do you need anything?" 

 

 

"Uh, not really. I was just- I mean, I -uh, I want to ask you something?"

 

 

Donghyuck nods unsurely, pointing at the seat nearest to Mark and sitting at the chair across it. 

 

 

"Shoot."

 

 

"Well," Mark starts. "I'm not interfering or anything, but I noticed earlier you have something on your wrist?" The younger nods. "And I asked Jeno if you have a tattoo or like, something,"

 

 

"Oh alright, so you're talking about this?" He held his wrist up, showing the side of his wrist where the mark is. "It's not a tattoo, it's my soulmate's mark." He finishes with a smile.

 

 

"Why did you asked?"

 

 

Mark rubs his arm before raising his wrist as well and pointed at it. Donghyuck took a closer look and his eyes widened, looks back at Mark and his eyes darting back down to the other's wrist. 

 

 

Written on Mark's wrist is the surname Lee. 

 

 

Donghyuck fails to form a complete thought and instead, compares his own to Mark's. The writing are basically just the same, but are in different positions. 

 

 

He looks back at Mark, and pulls his wrist away because they're so close to holding hands and Donghyuck's hands are itching to reach out so he took a preventive measure and sat back on his chair.

 

 

"6Its nice knowing someone that has the same mark as mine- and hey, let's see who gets to find their soulmate first!" 

 

 

Mark smiles, his trip back to Korea surely is interesting, and Donghyuck's making it more fun.

 

 

~

 

During his first night back in Seoul, Mark dreams of sunflowers and the warmth of someone else's hand holding his.

 

 

He feels content.

 

~

 

 

Donghyuck tries to connect the pieces together; the sound of an acoustic guitar playing a simple, yet familiar tune and messy writings scribbled all over in a worn out notebook. 

 

~